The Gartner Talent Angle

Entering 2024, executives face a volatile business environment, sustained talent shortages, rapid technological advancements and a workforce with intense change fatigue. As organizations seek to capitalize on new opportunities in the year ahead, CHROs must help navigate unforeseen challenges and difficult tradeoffs. In this episode of the Talent Angle, Gartner’s Peter Aykens and Emily Rose McRae share nine future of work trends that will shape HR in 2024.  To access the full future of work trends research, see: https://gtnr.it/FOW24 Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. Mr. Aykens is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth) and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University. Emily Rose McRae advises CHROs and other c-suite executives on the future of work and workforce transformation. While Ms. McRae works across all issues that can lead to the future of work, her core areas of focus include emerging technologies (such as GenAI) and their impact on work and the workforce, new employment models, evolving employee expectations, flexibility for frontline workers, and the aging workforce. She also helps executives with workforce planning to anticipate and prepare for these changes, creating an enterprise-wide future of work strategy, and creating and iterating on hybrid work strategies and the role of the office. Caroline Walsh is a managing vice president in Gartner’s HR practice. Her teams help HR leaders build and execute talent, diversity, rewards, and learning strategies and programs. Caroline has also led Gartner research teams on commercial banking strategy and leadership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

In 2023, expert guests joined the Gartner Talent Angle to lay out their visions for the future of jobs, the office and HR. Marshall School of Business professor Dr. John Boudreau and Mercer’s Transformation Services global leader Ravin Jesuthasan propose a new work “operating system” based on deconstructed work and deconstructed talent. Author Julia Hobsbawm offers advice on how organizations should shape the role of the office in an era of work marked by unclear boundaries and changing attitudes. And Vail Resorts CHRO Lynanne Kunkel explains how the HR function can strive for excellence by developing capabilities like change leadership and human-centered experience design. Ravin Jesuthasan is the global leader of Mercer’s Transformation Services business. He has led multiple research efforts on the global workforce, the emerging digital economy, the rise of artificial intelligence, and the transformation of work. Ravin has led numerous research projects for the World Economic Forum on the transformation of work and the global workforce. He is a regular participant and presenter at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos and is a member of the forum’s Steering Committee on Work and Employment. He is the author of “Transformative HR”, “Lead the Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment,” “Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach to Applying Automation to Work”, and the Wall Street Journal bestseller “Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System”. Dr. John Boudreau is recognized worldwide as a leading evidence-based visionary on the future of work and organization. John is Professor Emeritus of Management and Organization and a Senior Research Scientist with the Center for Effective Organizations, at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. For 40 years, he has conducted breakthrough research on the bridge between work, superior human capital, leadership and sustainable competitive advantage. His research addresses the future of work and the global HR profession, work automation, HR measurement and analytics, decision-based HR, executive mobility, HR information systems and organizational staffing and development. John helped to establish and then directed the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) at Cornell University, where he was a professor for more than 20 years. Julia Hobsbawm is an award-winning business author and futurist of work who writes the “Working Assumptions” column for Bloomberg’s Work Shift. The author of the acclaimed book “The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future,” she was a founder of the U.S.-led Workforce Institute, was chair of the inaugural U.K. Demos Workshift Commission, and now co-hosts the popular podcast, “The Nowhere Office.” Julia is the author of six books, including the award-winning “The Simplicity Principle,” and she was awarded an OBE in the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours List in 2015 for services to business. She regularly consults for and speaks to corporations, governments and changemakers around the world. Lynanne Kunkel is the CHRO for Vail Resorts. Prior to joining Vail Resorts in 2017, Lynanne served in various executive positions for Whirlpool, most recently as senior vice president of global HR. Throughout her career, she has led all aspects of HR to deliver enhanced business performance in areas that include business HR, talent acquisition, talent management, leadership development, organizational effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, and talent analytics.

While hybrid work, new technologies and evolving skills needs are changing how work gets done, what motivates employees remains constant. Author and psychologist Ron Friedman joins the Gartner Talent Angle to share how the latest findings in behavioral psychology can be applied throughout organizations. Friedman shares insights from his books “Decoding Greatness” and “The Best Place to Work” along with examples and stories from his work as founder of ignite80. He explains how HR leaders can use the method of reverse engineering to achieve success, and he details how an intentional focus on the psychological needs of employees can unlock their highest potential. Ron Friedman is an award-winning social psychologist and the founder of ignite80, a learning and development company that teaches leaders science-based strategies for building high-performing teams. Friedman has served on the faculty of the University of Rochester, Nazareth College, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today, Fast Company, Forbes, and CNN. Popular accounts of his research have appeared on NPR and in major newspapers, including The New York Times, Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, Washington Post, The Guardian, as well as magazines such as Men’s Health, Entrepreneur, and Success. His first book, The Best Place to Work, was named an Inc. Magazine Best Business Book of the Year. His new book, Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success, was selected by Amazon's editors as one of 2021’s best books. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

In 2023, expert guests joined the Gartner Talent Angle to  share their advice about key drivers of employee engagement, retention and performance: flexible work, wellbeing and internal mobility. Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom discusses the impact of flexible work on employee productivity and on organizations’ bottom lines. Siemens chief people and sustainability officer Judith Wiese shares how Siemens commits to well-being to drive talent outcomes and to position the organization for sustainable success. Author Helen Tupper makes the case for nonlinear career paths to deliver on the promise of internal mobility by giving employees relevant and engaging opportunities.   Nicholas Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University. Nick’s research focuses on working from home, management practices and uncertainty. He previously worked at the U.K. Treasury, McKinsey & Company and the IFS. He has a BA from Cambridge, an MPhil from Oxford, and a PhD from University College London. Nick is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of the Guggenheim and Sloan Fellowships, the Frisch Medal and a National Science Foundation Career Award. He was elected to Bloomberg50 for his advice on working from home.   Judith Wiese has been a member of the Managing Board of Siemens since 1 October 2020. She is the chief people and sustainability officer as well as labor director for Siemens. In addition, Judith is responsible for global business services (GBS) at Siemens. Judith has more than two decades of international experience in various HR fields. From 2017 to 2020, she was chief human resources officer at DSM, a Dutch company specializing in health, nutrition and sustainable living. Before that, she worked for the U.S. food company Mars, most recently as head of people and organization.   Helen Tupper is the co-founder and CEO of Amazing If, a company with an ambition to make careers better for everyone. Together with her business partner Sarah Ellis, she is the author of two Sunday Times bestsellers: “The Squiggly Career” and “You Coach You.” Their “Squiggly Careers” podcast is the U.K.’s No. 1 careers podcast, and their TEDx talk “The Best Career Path Isn’t Always a Straight Line” has over 1.5 million downloads. Helen also works as a trustee for Working Families, a U.K. charity with a mission to support families and caregivers with their work and life commitments. Prior to Amazing If, she held leadership roles for Microsoft, Virgin and BP and was awarded The Financial Times and 30% Club’s Women in Leadership MBA Scholarship. She is mum to Henry and Madeleine and lives with her husband in Buckinghamshire. You can find her on Instagram @amazingif.  

Business leaders today are struggling with managing their wellbeing, working with other leaders and mitigating their blind spots. Gartner analyst Rob O’Donohue joins the Talent Angle to discuss his research on how the most successful leaders succeed, despite rising employee burnout and employee-employer mistrust. Rob offers advice for how leaders can manage their workloads and take care of their own wellbeing. He also shares his insights on how leaders can build cohesion within their leadership teams and how they can better receive and implement challenging feedback from their teams and networks. Rob O'Donohue is a vice president analyst in Gartner's executive leadership research group focusing on C-suite dynamics, executive leadership development and transitions, organizational culture change, talent and DEI. He advises executives on the future of work, hybrid work design, culture change, solving talent challenges, advancing leadership effectiveness, creating high performing teams, and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the organization. Rob creates evidence-based actionable research to empower executive leaders to lead more effectively. Brent Cassell is a vice president of advisory in Gartner’s HR practice, and he has spent the past 19 years in Gartner’s HR and CIO practices. His job is to help clients find the research they need, to help them understand that research, and to coach them through the implementation of those best practices in their own organizations. Brent is the contributing editor of the HR Leaders Monthly journal. In 2022, he won Gartner’s award for Outstanding Thought Leadership for his work on Redesigning Work for the Hybrid World.

Ronald Schellekens, PepsiCo CHRO, and Ceree Eberly, former Coca-Cola Company chief people officer, join the Gartner Talent Angle to discuss how HR leaders can serve as role models for the business to manage through sustained uncertainty. Schellekens and Eberly share their perspectives for navigating ongoing changes to the talent landscape and preparing for long-term volatility. They draw on their experiences as HR leaders to share advice for attracting external candidates, developing a strong internal talent market and boosting employee engagement. Ronald Schellekens is Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of PepsiCo. Ronald joined PepsiCo in 2018 and oversees the company’s global HR function, which leads talent management and acquisition, leadership development, learning and capability building, compensation and benefits, organizational effectiveness, and HR operations. Ronald and his team also partner with PepsiCo’s Sectors and business units to advance culture, as well as diversity, inclusion and engagement. Prior to joining PepsiCo, Ronald served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Vodafone for 10 years. Ronald holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources and a Master’s degree in Management and Organization from TIAS Business School in the Netherlands and has completed the Program for Management Development (PMD) at Harvard Business School. Ceree Eberly serves as Chair for the CHRO Global Leadership Board, a network of HR executives working with Gartner to share best practices and influence cutting-edge thinking to guide the next generation of HR leaders. In March 2018, Ceree retired as SVP and Chief People Officer for Coca-Cola after 28 years with the company. She led significant improvements in Coca-Cola’s people and talent processes, leaving a lasting legacy at the organization Ceree is also a member of Women Corporate Directors global organization and has been involved with numerous Human Resources Global Leadership organizations. Ceree has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee, graduating with high honors. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Employees and candidates consistently value pay transparency, but before HR leaders alter their rewards strategies to meet these expectations, they must first consider their holistic impact on the organization. Peter Bamberger, Professor at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management and author of “Exposing Pay,” joins the Talent Angle to detail what pay transparency means for employers, employees and society. He shares the history of the pay transparency movement and relevant academic research to explain how a culture of transparency impacts outcomes like pay equity and productivity. He argues that organizations should ultimately pursue a path towards more transparency. Peter A. Bamberger is the Domberger Professor of Management at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management, and Research Director of Cornell’s Smithers Institute. His research examines rewards management, teamwork and employee well-being. Author of several books including “Human Resource Strategy” and “Exposing Pay,” Peter has published over 100 refereed journal articles. An elected Fellow of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Academy of Management, he served as an associate editor of Academy of Management Journal, and editor-in-chief of Academy of Management Discoveries. Peter currently serves as president-elect of the Academy of Management. Caroline Walsh is a vice president in Gartner’s HR practice. Her teams help HR leaders build and execute talent, diversity, rewards, and learning strategies and programs. Caroline has also led Gartner research teams on commercial banking strategy and leadership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

Inflation, supply chain risks and a tightening labor market are placing a squeeze on organizations, forcing leaders to make difficult tradeoffs. These macroeconomic conditions create challenges and opportunities for HR leaders to guide their organizations through an environment most leaders haven’t experienced before. Chris Scalia, Hershey CHRO, and Ceree Eberly, former Chief People Officer at the Coca-Cola Company, join the Talent Angle to share how HR leaders can thrive during periods of volatility. Drawing on their experiences as HR leaders, Chris Scalia and Ceree Eberly offer guidance for making tough decisions in an uncertain environment, outline approaches to making enterprise level changes amid disruption and provide tangible advice to help HR leaders model behaviors that make organizations excel. Chris Scalia is The Hershey Company’s Chief Human Resources Officer and leads Hershey’s human resources function with accountability for Workforce Planning, Listening and Analytics, Total Rewards, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, Talent Management, HR Service Delivery, and Strategic Business Partnering.  Central to Hershey’s vision of becoming a snacking powerhouse are capabilities brought to life through outstanding talent.  An energized workforce and people-centric culture striving to make a positive impact in communities where we live and work is fundamental to how Hershey leads in the marketplace. Chris has held several leadership roles in legal and HR across the spectrum of manufacturing, labor relations, employment law, business partnering, and all of talent. Ceree Eberly serves as Chair for the CHRO Global Leadership Board, a network of HR executives working with Gartner to share best practices and influence cutting-edge thinking to guide the next generation of HR leaders. In March 2018, Ceree retired as SVP and Chief People Officer for Coca-Cola after 28 years with the company. She led significant improvements in Coca-Cola’s people and talent processes, leaving a lasting legacy at the organization Ceree is also a member of Women Corporate Directors global organization and has been involved with numerous Human Resources Global Leadership organizations. Ceree has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee, graduating with high honors. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Despite ongoing obstacles to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives – such as employee pushback – author and consultant Lily Zheng argues HR leaders should continue to drive DEI outcomes by balancing ownership with individual accountability. Lily joins the Talent Angle to offer advice from their book “Reconstructing DEI: A Practitioner’s Workbook” based on their book “DEI Deconstructed.” Lily situates the current DEI landscape within its broader history and outlines how DEI leaders can increase their impact while protecting their own wellbeing. They also dive into actionable steps for managers who want to advance DEI outcomes yet worry about saying or doing the right thing. Lily Zheng (they/them) is a no-nonsense diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist, consultant, speaker and author who helps organizations and leaders achieve the DEI outcomes they aspire to. A dedicated practitioner and advocate named a Forbes D&I Trailblazer, 2021 DEI Influencer, and LinkedIn Top Voice on Racial Equity, Lily has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, New York Times, and NPR. Their bestselling books, “DEI Deconstructed” and “Reconstructing DEI”, describe cutting-edge, accountable, and effective practices that can enable any leader to create the diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations we all deserve. Caroline Walsh is a managing vice president in Gartner’s HR practice. Her teams help HR leaders build and execute talent, diversity, rewards, and learning strategies and programs. Caroline has also led Gartner research teams on commercial banking strategy and leadership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

The significance of understanding employee physical and mental health and wellbeing has increased substantially in the hybrid world. Organizations are rethinking the importance of trust and autonomy in the employee experience to develop healthy, resilient and productive workforces for the long-term. Judith Wiese, chief people and sustainability officer at Siemens, joins the Talent Angle to discuss employee wellbeing and its implications for organizations. She highlights how Siemens’ commitment to wellbeing and empowerment drives positive talent outcomes and positions the organization for sustainable success. Judith Wiese has been a member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG since October 1, 2020. She is the Chief People and Sustainability Officer as well as Labor Director for Siemens AG. In addition, Judith is responsible for Global Business Services (GBS) at Siemens. Judith has more than two decades of international experience in various HR fields. From 2017 to 2020, she was Chief Human Resources Officer at DSM, a Dutch company specializing in health, nutrition, and sustainable living. Before that, she worked for the U.S. food company Mars Inc., most recently as Head of People & Organization. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.